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Bottle ID: 00909
WHITE W/GREEN, OCHRE & ROSE OVERLAY, FISHERMEN IN SAMPANS
Date: 1800-1850
Height: 56 mm
Glass, of flattened rounded form, overlaid with green over ochre over rose-pink on a translucent milk-white ground and carved in relief with a continuous scene on one side, of two fishermen in sampans, one seated with a fishing rod and basket, the other casting his net over the lotus-covered water with the crescent moon rising above them; the reverse with two further fishermen and their basket in a sampan drifting on the lotus-covered water beside grassy banks with a bird swooping above them, one side carved with a gnarled pine tree issuing from rockwork and depicted on both faces of the bottle.
Attributed to Yangzhou.
Similar Examples:
Lawrence, Clare. Twenty Five Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period, October, 1993.
Holden, Rachelle R. Rivers and Mountains Far From the World - The Rachelle R. Holden Collection, 1994, p. 289, no. 126.
Sotheby's, New York, September 14, 2010, lot 106, The Joe Grimberg Collection.
Provenance:
Asian Art Studio
The Collection of Philip Harvey, CA.
Exhibited:
Annual Convention ICSBS Toronto, October 2007
Published:
JICSBS, Autumn 2004, Front and Back Cover
JICSBS, Winter 2007, p. 19, fig. 7
In 1992 the author discovered an impressive Yangzhou School bottle, now in Robert Chang's Collection, which is part of the same multiple overlay group as this bottle and comparable to it. Similar to the one illustrated in the Holden book, it has the same delicate shades of green, ochre and rose-pink overlaid on an opaque white ground. It has the rockwork, cloud scrolls and pine typical of this highly unique workshop and like the Crane and Holden examples, is artistically one of the highest quality overlays seen both in terms of composition and carving. What makes it important to the group as a whole is the three character mark inscribed on the base, which reads "Shende Tang". This can be translated as "Hall for the Cultivation of Virtue".
During the Daoguang Emperor's reign, a series of porcelain wares with a four character base mark, Shende Tang Zhi, were made for the Palace when it was built in 1833. Although not enameled with the normal six character mark of the imperial kiln, they possess all the characteristics of Daoguang imperial wares. Shende Tang wares included bowls, cup, ladles and snuff bottles, which, in the light of primary research both in Hong Kong and mainland China, appear to be designed and made for the Emperor's personal use. For many years, the Shende Tang mark was assumed to be a private studio or hallmark but not necessarily Imperial. Simon Kwan in his thesis on nineteenth century hallmarks on porcelain overturns this assumption citing the following evidence:
"The Shende Tang was a palace with the Yuanming Yuan Compound, the Imperial Summer Palace. Published in 1897, the Huangchao Suo Xie Lu makes two references to it:
1. Chapter 4, page 2: "Xuanzang (the official title of the Emperor Daoguang) decided to appoint Wanzhon as the grand prince .... and ordered to see him at the Shende Tang. (Note: name of residential palace.)
2. Chapter 9, page 17: "on the 14th day of the first moon on the 30th year of Daoguang, Xuanzang, the Emperor, died in Yuanming Yuan, in the Shende Tang."
It is clear from this that the Shende Tang was one of the residential palaces of the Emperor Daoguang and that he resided there until his death. In 1860, ten years after, the 200 buildings of the Yuanming Yuan were systematically sacked and then burnt down by the British and French armies. Although rebuilt by the Empress Dowager at the end of the nineteenth century, there is no evidence that this palace was reinstated.
A well-known Court painting shows the Emperor Daoguang sitting at leisure with his family in the Summer Palace. To the top left is the four character seal Shende Tang Zhi, beneath which the Daoguang Emperor is seated beside a table on which lie two snuff bottles, indicating that he was, at the very least, a collector of snuff bottles, if not an imbiber of snuff. The importance of the habit is underlined by his decision to include the bottles in a painting, which is stamped with the Shende Tang seal.
Other than porcelain wares, only five pieces exist today - three paintings and two snuff bottles - which carry the Shende Tang mark in some form. The other two paintings are also of the Daoguang Emperor. The first scroll depicts him at leisure, seated in the Shende Tang. The second, in the Beijing Palace Museum, shows him riding a horse, and is stamped with the seal "Shende Tang treasure".
Of the two snuff bottles, one is the multiple overlay in the Grimberg Collection; the second, which is a brown glass with white swirls, is in the Corning Museum from the collection of the late Marian Mayer and is inscribed on the base with a three character Shende Tang mark. The vast majority of Shende Tang marks, and virtually all of the marks on porcelain, are four character marks. However, early Chinese records, compiled at the turn of the century (in the Yinliu zhaishuocu and the Taoya - 1906) state that although Shende Tang pieces with three character marks are rare, they do exist.
During the Daoguang period, the Imperial workshops, including the glass workshops, were in steady decline and the Emperor had to look outside the Palace for high quality objects including snuff bottles. It is an indication of the stellar quality of these multiple overlay bottles that they were held in such esteem that the Emperor himself would want one.